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Before My Helpless Sight - 9780754658535

Un libro in lingua di Van Bergen Leo Waters Liz (TRN) edito da Ashgate Pub Co, 2009

  • € 68.30
  • Il prezzo è variabile in funzione del cambio della valuta d’origine

This is not an easy book to read and it would not have been easy to write. A medical history of World War I could hardly be otherwise. Every page lists a new horror, often related by witnesses or participants. Van Bergen (medical history, Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre, Amsterdam) combed through records, letters and diaries from all sides in the war and from both soldiers and civilians. In the introduction, van Bergen discusses his own complex philosophy of war, heroism and, especially the universal suffering involved. He begins with a summary of the five years of the war and the general conditions endured. Then he confronts the reality of life in the trenches, with illness, battle injuries and often a lack of safe food and water. There is a chapter on shell shock, now accepted, but then considered a form of cowardice by many. The overwhelming task of medical practitioners is discussed and finally, inevitably, death. The use of first hand accounts to tell most of the story is masterful. A field of bodies is lamentable; one man left blind, limbless, faceless and praying for death is a personal tragedy. The fact that the tragedy continues is, as van Bergen makes clear, an outrage. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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